Sniper (group)

Sniper (French pronunciation: ​) is a French hip hop band from the Val-d'Oise department consisting of Tunisiano (Bachir Baccour) and Aketo (Ryad Selmi). Blacko, also known as Afrikaf (Karl Appela), was a member of the group until his departure in July 2007. A fourth member, DJ Boudj, took part in the first two albums before leaving the group.

The members of Sniper first met at the 1997 Francofolies festival at La Rochelle. There, DJ Boudj and the three rappers Aketo, Tunisiano and Blacko met and decided to form the group, originally called Personnalité suspecte (Suspicious Character). This name was abbreviated to Persni and finally ended up as Sniper, an example of the French slang form, known as verlan.

The three members form a complementary group, as Aketo and El Tunisiano have developed more of a rap style and Blacko prefers an approach closer to reggae; meanwhile DJ Boudj takes care of the scratching. They began by making appearances on various mixes and compilations, such as The Power of Unity, Première classe (First Class) and B.O.S.S..